All Grain Water Chemistry Brewing Information

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Understanding water chemistry in brewing is an important step to refining home brewing skills. It turns out less than a teaspoon of a couple key brewing salts can make a big impact in a batch of beer. This is mainly applicable to all grain brewing where full control over the mash chemistry is available. However, the flavor profile is impacted by water chemistry in all brewing styles.

Tuning water to a particular style of beer adds a lot of fun and satisfaction. Balancing flavor ions gives absolute control over the final product. Water chemistry is also important for hitting the correct pH in the mash and can impact efficiency.

The first thing to do is obtain your local water report. Most cities provide this online with far more information than you will use in brewing. The values to look for are:

Calcium (Ca+2)

Magnesium (Mg+2)

Sulfates (SO4-2)

Sodium (Na+)

Chloride (Cl-)

Bicarbonate / Alkalinity

Brewers living in cities with soft water are the most fortunate because they have complete control over the mineral levels in their brewing water. For brewers in places with hard water (high alkalinity and mineral content), dilution with distilled water and then re-adding depleted minerals is the easiest solution. Well water is a tough one as it will require lab analysis to be sure what the levels are, but it can be expected to be packed with minerals.

To help navigate all this information, we created the Brewer’s Friend water chemistry calculator. It helps you hit target concentrations and advises about minimum and maximum levels for each ion. Too much of a given salt can ruin the beer and cause side effects to those who drink it. The calculator also reports how the ion concentrations impact the flavor and bitterness of the beer.

The Brewing Salts:

Adjusting your source water the target water is done through adding a combination of brewing salts.

Chalk – Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)
Boosts alkalinity and source of calcium. Good for adding alkalinity to soft water for brewing dark beers.

Baking soda – Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3),

Boosts alkalinity and source of sodium.

Gypsum – Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4 * 2 H20)

Source of calcium, sulfate enhances hop bittering, but must be balanced with chlorides.

Calcium Chloride (CaCl2 * 2 H20)

Source of calcium for low chloride water.

Epsom salt – Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4 * 7 H20)

Sulfate enhances hop bittering, but must be balanced with chlorides. Magnesium has a low ppm threshold for being safe (brewing range 0-30ppm), so use this one sparingly if at all.